Google is going to announce it's own Virtual World at Virtual Worlds 2007 on Wednesday, October 10th, according to information from The Grid Live in a post titled: Architectural Wonders - Using Google to Create a Virtual World:

"…The Multiverse Network is announcing a partnership today that will allow you to create a virtual world using Google Earth and Google’s 3D Warehouse, a repository of 3D models created using tools like Google Sketchup. So, say if a city has 3D models built of it’s buildings, you could create a virtual world from them, almost instantly using this new technology. They are planning on showing Architectural Wonders at the Virtual Worlds conference tomorrow in San Jose, California."

I already wrote about this a week or two ago in a post titled Google Virtual World could be called My World, Googleworld, Google's World or Googleworld.com. 

The fact that Google is showing up to Virtual World 2007 in San Jose (I didn't see them at the New York show earlier this year) with this announcement says that Google means business and is ready to try to take over Virtual Worlds community - the same way they attempt to take over any field they get into.  

If Google does succeed, it is because they have a better model, better way of integrating the web and even analytics, than anyone else.   But lets be clear, when Google decides they want to be part of a market, anything they do - it's to dominate it - and that's been their pattern all along.

In Google tools to power virtual worlds, CNET goes into more detail about Google's pan to offer a virtual-world production tool:

"…If you want to build a virtual world centered on, say, downtown San Francisco, you could use the new technology to create the area itself and populate it with the digital versions of real-world buildings that have been created and uploaded to the 3D Warehouse. "

In one fell swoop, Google has undercut Second Life by making it really easy to build things - like a virtual city, based on a real one.

"…"The goal is to grab things from the 3D Warehouse when looking at things in Google Earth and then make an instant multiverse world," said Multiverse co-founder Corey Bridges. "What we've done is provide a more streamlined interface for using (Google's technology) as a virtual-world production tool."

Also Jerry Paffendorf, who I've met a few times in New York, weighs in on the new Google instant virtual world creator tools:

"..For Paffendorf, one of the most vocal proponents of a 3D massively multiplayer environment based on Google Earth and SketchUp information, Multiverse's innovation is nothing short of groundbreaking.

He said he's particularly excited and hopeful that the Architectural Wonders project will allow virtual-world designers to incorporate not just models and terrain from Google Earth, but also much of the metadata that makes it so powerful: the personal notations and photographs that millions of users have added to it. "

To sum up, Google has gone for the Jugular and undercut everyone else in the Virtual Worlds environment by making Virtual Worlds easy to build from scratch, something none of the others, including Second Life, could not offer.

There's no metrics yet …… but I would think Google will eventually connect up it's  Google Virtual World with Google Analytics, in some sort of way.   There's probably a window of another 6 months or so, take advantage of these developments - after which, Google will probably situate itself as not only a Virtual World creator, but a metrics collection tool as well for Virtual Worlds.

What form of tool that is … remains to be seen.